-Gloria, White Men Can't Jump
I was going to throw this into my ongoing thoughts today, but it merits it's own post (don't forget to check out what Swindle wrote today either BTW).
Sweden 0-0 Trinidad & Tobago.
T&T are the smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup, and anything other than 3 ass-whipping losses would be seen as a massive success. The oddsmakers have T&T dead last, placing them at between 1,000-1 and 3,000-1, while Sweden are between 30-1 and 45-1; that alone tells you that the draw that T&T got today was a massive shocker on the face of things.
They'll never again pay for a drink in T&T.
But is was even more ridiculous than that, as they had a man sent off (rather harshly, I might add) with a straight red card just after halftime, and had to play the last 40+ minutes with 10 men against a team that created 50 chances in the first half. In the second half Sweden created 50 more, but Trini keeper Shakah Hislop was an absolute brick wall, and T&T even smashed one agonizingly off the crossbar that was inches from giving them one of the all time tournament upsets. Unlike England earlier in the day, Sweden did not play badly, they just couldn't finish any of the 100 chances that they created. Also, Sweden were never going to score because T&T's coach is the creepy old man from the movie Layer Cake who behind the scenes pulls all the strings in the underworld and always insures that his interests are met in the end.
"Welcome to The Layercake, son."
This match was Exhibit A on how a 0-0 soccer match can be exciting and compelling. It was the best match of the 4 so far even though it is the only one without a goal. The massive underdog was able to hold off against the odds, and as Sweden failed to convert chance after chance after chance, you could see T&T's confidence that they could do the unthinkable build and build as Sweden's frustrations mounted with every miss. For the non-soccer fan, this match was George Mason defeating #1 UConn in the 2006 NCAA Tournament (or any of the others they knocked off for that matter).
I will give Sweden credit for this: despite all the hype the English fans get, Sweden absolutely beat their ass today at singing, enthusiasm, and volume (at least for the first 60 minutes, until the reality that they might not win after all set in and they got very quiet and went to town on their fingernails Bucky The Beaver style).
As much as I would have loved to be in Quito last night, I really would love to be in Port Of Spain right now. Just think of the butts shaking in the streets to el musica Soca. My God, the butts.
I really need to have a Gulfstream G4 by the 2010 World Cup
16 comments:
That coach's face was used by Johnny Bench for several years.
For the record, I think that the T&T player was sent off for an accumulation of yellows--and the second yellow was rubbish, he got to a 50/50 ball first and made a clean play on it.
There is little doubt that Cantona would have had a problem with the Swedish player on that play, because he made a meal of it.
I appreciated T&T's effort; even down a man they still had a go. Isn't this the first win ever for a Carribean nation? The whole of the Windies will be going nuts tonight.
The best part was watching the frustration mount on the Swiss team. They were dumbfounded that when their shots were on net, they were either right at Shaka or he made a terrfic save.
Agree: Best match of the Cup so far.
Hell yeah, alot of teams in that position get down after the red or give up or whatever and get rolled, but they said "fuck this, we're still getting the miracle draw". The lived up to their name: the were truly Soca Warriors today.
Sorry, but that coach is Eddie Temple, straight-up.
Peter- agreed. That's what made the match so exciting and compelling, was T&T's confidence building and Sweden's frustration that just made then create even more chances.
Now I know why Allback fell out of the Prem and now plays back in Sweden -he seems to think that the object is to shoot it right at the keeper - what did he have 4 great chances where he hit Hislop in the chest?
One could do worse than stumble into a drunken catfight between the Swedish and T'nT fanbases. We'd only officiate in the name of peace.
It wasn't only Hislop who played a great game, both center backs made fantastic plays as well.
I can't think of another 0-0 draw that I've enjoyed as much as that one.
The Swiss?
At last! On the board!
God I hate Argentina... Orson's right: the inner tribesman in me is in overdrive. World Wars make a lot more sense every four years.
Go Ivory!
Oh, Kanu: one more thing - you should really have open threads where readers can comment during the matches.
Les Elephants acquitted themselves well enough. Beaucoup d'athleticisme; no flow whatsoever.
Argentina, otoh...they're doing just fine. Opportunistic, patient, dogged on defense, and the usual Patagonian precision passing.
Jamaica beat Japan in the '98 WC so a Caribbean team has done it before. I'm so happy for Trinidad right now. Simply amazing.
Plus, since they slightly tweak the amount of teams from each continent that goes to the WC every year, I'm cheering my ass for Costa Rica and T & T and even (gulp!) Mexico in addition to the USA.
The more spots CONCACAF get in the World Cup, the easier qualification will be for the USA.
Port of Spain must be rocking like a mofo right now.
For the record, I want ANY team not from Europe or South America to win the World Cup. I want the big league shake up.
I'm with you, Nico--I'm a big-time CONCACAF pimp during every World Cup.
Unfortunately, at this point 4 teams is really stretching it--there's just no more good nations out there. Hell, T&T was fully extended to beat Bahrain in the playoff--not exactly the strongest opposition. And I don't think any other CONCACAF nations could have done as well as them (although, admittedly, Guatemala would have had a considerably larger home-field advantage).
Peter-
My Random Thoughts post each day is meant ot be an open thread comments section, but it got buried today on account of Swindle, The Belmont Stakes, and this post. I'll try to do a better job going forward of placing it at the top of the page during the games. Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm an AFC man myself (we Chinese need every break we can get).
Wouldn't it be fun for T&T to put up an result against England? Would that be too much to ask?
Moin -
With Sven running the show, no level of disappointment is out of the question.
Also, with China having 1.5 billion people, it seem ineveitable that in 100 years they will be one of the best soccer nations on earth (still don't understand why them and India aren't better now).
The excuse the Chinese media (and public) are using is that the Chinese are naturally too "polite" and "reserved" to be good. As they will inevitably back off a challenge instead of, well, challenging. (The same stereotype is used at Yao Ming, actually, but in a much quieter and more patronizing way.)
Total BULLSHIT if you ask me. Nations don't become soccer powers over night. The passion, identity, knowledge, and infrastructure has to be in place. The USFA targetted 2010 as a year for the US to win a World Cup soon after 1994. Why not before? Because even they knew that this kind of shit takes time, even for a nation with as much talent, population, resources, and infrastructure as the US. It just takes time. (Unless you are the Dutch, in which case you invent a whole new way to play football at the exact same time the golden generation of your players mature and then take the world by storm.)
I agree that CONCACAF is weak, but after the ass whipping the non-host Asian teams got in '02, one could argue that 4.5 spots is a bit high for them. If we could just kill that playoff and take their 0.5 and both Asia and CONCACAF sent four, that'd be fair (at least in my mind.)
And India sucks primarily because they almost exclusively care about cricket. Combine that with the fact that you have a billion people, poor infrastructure, a large geographic territory, etc. and it's VERY DIFFICULT to identify quality players.
Lastly, from my experience, many Indian parents are very anti-sports. Not anti-sports in the sense that they don't enjoy watching them but they are against them for their own children because it is financially impractical.
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